


The Perils Of A Kitten

by LilyC



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyC/pseuds/LilyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only Haru understood the dangers that a kitten brought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perils Of A Kitten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aoigensou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoigensou/gifts).



> Thanks [aguamarine](http://archiveofourown.org/users/aquamarine) for the beta.

 

Haru believed he was having a good year. He had Rin back in his life, the new swim club was great, and he had access to a pool he could use anytime. No one was leaving for other continents, or blaming him for destroyed dreams. The others were around all the time and swimming with friends was way better than swimming alone. Everything had turned out okay, even great, but then Makoto missed a swimming practice without telling any of them and everything started to go downhill again.

Makoto had to be sick, even if he looked all right earlier at school. He wouldn’t let them down without a really good reason, even if there isn’t any competition. He wouldn’t have stood up Haru without notice like this. Not at all. Something terrible must have happened. And as soon as Haru knew what it was, he would fix it and they could go back to swimming and having a good year.

Makoto was at school the next day looking perfectly healthy. He also had a dozen pictures of a tiny cat in his phone that he showed proudly to them.

“Ran and Ren gave her to me as an apology. I let them be in charge of feeding my goldfish during regionals. It didn’t go very well.”

“They forgot?” Nagisa asked.

“No, they actually took their responsibility very seriously, feeding them several times during the day. Turns out goldfish can die when fed too much,” he explained with a smile, but Haru knew that he must be upset. He loved his little fish and what they represented.

“We buried them in the garden, but the twins were still so upset  that they wanted to make it up to me. So they got me Cake. That is also why I didn’t go to practice yesterday. I had to take her to the vet.” He showed them a picture of Ran and Ren holding a colorful box between them. The tiny kitten was inside, looking unimpressed with all the fuss.

Makoto smiled the entire time while they looked at the pictures, showing off his new pet. The soft look he saved to for people he really liked, the one he used with Haru, was on his face. Not that Haru was jealous or anything. It was just a cat, no need to worry about it.

 

By the end of the week, Haru was officially worried. It wasn’t about him, he justified to himself, it was about the club. Makoto hadn’t missed another practice because of his cat, but it had been the only topic of conversation between the team for the past few days. Makoto was completely engrossed with describing every little detail of his pet. Haru knew, even without ever asking, that it was a girl, and she was named after a cartoon cat. He knew what was her favorite games were, and where she liked to sleep, and how she was a little snob, ignoring everyone's attempts to get her attention or reprimand her. All of them are obsessed with the kitten, especially Makoto. It was starting to pull their focus away from swimming and something had to be done to stop that.

When he tried to explain to the rest of the team his concerns that Makototo’s kitten was interfering with their chances to win competitions, they didn’t react was he expected. Nagisa wanted to make Cake the new mascot, on the chance that her cuteness would attract more members. Rei agreed with Nagisa, and thought that cats were beautiful animals, very aesthetically pleasing. Both of them ignored him completely and  went on and on about their plans for the new mascot. Haru would not draw Cake for them. Ever.

Gou was even worse. She had laughed at him, murmured something about stupid boys, and called Rin, who, after listening to Haru’s concerns, also started to laugh and hung up on him without giving any helpful suggestions. Haru tried to explain to Gou how Nagisa and Rei had already been dominated by the kitten, and how vital it was that they fixed this, but she just kept telling him to talk to Makoto about how he missed him. Useless.

It was clear that they were not paying the matter the attention required, maybe because there was no competition for months and maybe because all the talk about Cake had actually happened after practice. But Haru couldn’t take that chance. If nobody else could see the danger that a Cake presented, he would just have to deal with the problem himself. For the team.

He wasn’t sure how to fix the problem. He didn’t want something bad happening to the kitten – he liked cats and Cake was adorable (he would deny it to his grave but it was the truth). He thought vaguely about faking a allergy or leaving the door open so she would get out, but he didn’t live in the same house as Makototo so that wouldn’t work. Also, Makoto would be sad if she was gone, especially after the goldfish. Haru didn’t need Cake gone – he just needed Makoto's focus back on him and not on her all the time.

 

When Haru got to the Tachibana house on Friday afternoon, he didn't have a clear plan. But it couldn’t be that hard. He just needed to be more interesting than a kitten so that Makoto would pay attention to him (and to the club, of course) and everything would be all right again. He could do that. It would be easy.

He slept over at Makoto’s almost every Friday. They would study for a while and then, after dinner, babysit the twins so that Makoto’s parents could go out for a date night. It was the perfect opportunity to remind Makoto where his focus should be, and Haru wasn't going home until he had his place restored in Makoto’s routine.

 

Their study sessions were always quiet, exchanging books and answers without speaking out loud so they didn't interrupt each other's thoughts. No one in the house called them before dinner, so it was the perfect time to remind Makoto how well they worked together and how they could guess what the other was thinking. Except today, Cake had joined them. She sat on Makoto’s laptop, right on the keyboard, staring at Haru with an unimpressed look as Makoto petted her. He looked at Makoto, waiting for him to realize that he wanted to use the computer, but he was too distracted to notice.

“I need to use the computer,” Haru said. Makoto startled from his almost trance, blinking at him.

“Oh. Right, sorry. Here you go.” He scooped her onto his lap so that Haru could reach the PC and soon went back to work with only one hand, using his other hand to continue petting Cake.

Haru’s concentration disappeared after that. He kept on being distracted by Cake and getting answers wrong, bumping into Makoto while reaching for books, conscious of his presence in a ways he never was, pretty much proving they should never study together.

When Mr. Tachibana called them to dinner, Haru had done almost none of his homework and he had lost Makoto’s attention to Cake. But he would not let it mess with his intentions. He had the whole night to gain Makoto back.

 

After dinner, they usually played with the twins for awhile before putting them to bed. Makototo adored his siblings, so getting along with them was a prerequisite in the Tachibana house. Haru never had a problem with that. He liked Ran and Ren and had fun playing games and watching movies with them. Entertaining the kids was easy, and a good way to show Makoto how he could be fun. When he went upstairs, they sitting on the floor with Cake, surrounded by cat toys.

“So, guys, what do you wanna do tonight?” Haru asked with an almost manic edge to his voice.

“Come play with Cake, Haru,” Ran said without looking at him, moving a wand with some rope at its tip over Cake's head.

“Don’t you want to play a game? Or maybe a movie? We can see Finding Nemo!” He picked it off their shelf. It was Haru's best chance. The movie was their favorite and they had watched it countless times over the past few months.

“Nemo is boring Haru, playing with Cake is more fun,” Ren answered this time, also without looking up. “You can play too, just wait your turn.”

When Makoto got to the room after finishing the dishes, Haru was sitting against the wall, DVD case in his hand, watching the twins play.

“You can go watch TV on my room if you want, Haru,” he said, looking at the DVD and smiling before joining the kids on the floor.

Haru didn’t move from his spot until bedtime. He could swear that Cake had been staring at him the entire time.

 

After the Nemo fiasco, Haru was starting to get worried. He couldn’t possibly have been replaced by a cat in all of their Friday routines. It wasn’t fair.

The last part of the night, before they actually went to sleep, was also Haru’s favorite. After the twins were in their beds, they played video games, just the two of them, until Makoto’s parents came home or they were too tired to see straight. It was Haru's last chance to get Makoto’s attention back. And it had to work.

Cake was not around for once. They were laughing together, taking turns shooting at aliens and trying to beat each other's best scores. It was Haru's turn, and he was playing well. He had already passed Makoto’s score and was one alien ship away from unlocking a new part of the game. He took the last shot and watched the ship explode on the scream with a smile. He paused the game as the commander began to direct them to next sector to look at Makoto, who had been strangely quiet during all that.

Makoto was on the floor pointing a laser to the wall so that Cake could try to catch it. He was completely engrossed by their little game. He hadn’t noticed Haru winning, wasn’t looking at the TV, even though he had cheered loudly when everything exploded. Haru turned the TV off without saving and got up, suddenly tired.

“We should go to sleep.”

“Already?” Makoto looked up at him, fond smile on his face.

“Yeah, it’s late.” It wasn't, not for them, but Haru was giving up his quest. Cake could have Makoto for now. He would try another day.

 

The last straw came when they got ready for bed. Haru always slept on Makoto bed with him. It had started when they were kids and neither of them had bothered to stop, even when they became too big to share a bed. Haru liked it, liked the fact that Makoto was close, that he could reach over and touch him whenever he wanted, that he could feel the warm presence of his body when he fell asleep.

He got back from the bathroom and found Cake curled up on the bed, on his pillow. Makoto started to move Cake to his side when he saw Haru and set her between the two of them. Haru snapped.

“No!” Makoto lifted his head, startled, but Haru wasn’t talking to him. “No, no, no. That is my place.”

Haru was pretty sure that he was losing his mind – he was talking to a kitten after all, but he had had enough. 

“He is mine!” He crawled on the bed, passing Cake, sitting right on Makoto’s lap and kissing him. They both froze. This hadn't been Haru's plan when he had started to move. He wasn’t even sure he had a plan, except for getting closer and reclaiming his bed space and his Makoto. He pulled away slowly, looking at Makoto, waiting for him to kick him from the bed.

“Oh,” Makoto said in a a soft voice before grabbing Haru’s hair and kissing him again, hard and determined, pulling Haru closer.

They fell back on the bed, still kissing, moving Cake out of her spot. Haru heard her whining in the background and felt when she walked over his back to go find somewhere else to sleep. He smiled against Makoto’s mouth, ready to gloat about his victory, but just then, Makoto decided to kiss his neck, his hands at his thighs bringing them even closer, and all thoughts vanished out of Haru’s head.

 

Haru woke up with Makoto curled at his side and a weight on his chest. It was dark outside, and the alarm clock let him know that it was the middle of the night. The weight turned out to be Cake, pawing at his nose. Haru groaned at her for waking him up, but she just looked back at him unimpressed as always. He didn’t wanted to move and wake Makoto, so he laid there and stared at the kitten.

Cake gave a tinny meow of victory and, walking over their faces, curled up on the pillow between Haru and Makoto’s heads to sleep, making it clear that it was _her_ pillow. Makoto moved to accommodate her without fully waking up, pulling Haru against him and kissing his neck.

“I suppose you can stay,” Haru said to the ceiling. Maybe losing was not such a bad thing on this situation, he decided, ignoring Makoto's laugh against his shoulder, and going back to sleep.

 


End file.
